The story of heavy metal music branches through subgenres and the styles which compose them. Items in red are genres; items in white are influences; styles highlighted with yellow are transitional. The music, and subculture, itself remains controversial, as in both music and ideals it is a revolt against populism within a populist style of music, rock. Its themes are dark and individualistic in a way that circumnavigates the sterile and utilitarian definition of the individual in bureaucratic society; they have more in common with ancient and modern Romantic poets than with condescending definitions of "empowerment" and "rights." The music, based on the movable fifth chord with added second, tends by nature toward melody, as the chords are equally at home in minor or major key phrasing. This allows heavy metal subgenres to remake rock into something based on the most difficult to define, but widely appreciated, elements of music, where otherwise it would be rhythm and harmony alone; conveniently, such simple music does not offend the taste of a crowd. Aesthetically, of course, metal is a process of finding esoteric beauty in darkness, where the broadest segment of society would prefer easily-encapsulated, mass-market beauty that everyone can understand. However, heavy metal is notoriously non-political, opting for statements at a level of artistic and not sociological voicing. For most modern thinkers, this creates a quandary about how to study it, so they write it off as another form of rock that is simply more efficient at upsetting parents; this site is a dedication to another perspective, which is that metal is germaine commentary on a collapsing society, and that if we pay attention to its values and methods, we can see the antidote to our deeply-ingrained disease.